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Makes me glad I live in a one story home and there’s no stairs to hamper delivery of a big piano or super heavy furniture. Besides the Estonia, we have this super heavy dining table that is an utter pain to move.
J & J Estonia L190 Hidden Beauty Casio Privia P230 At least half the waiters in Nashville play better than I
Awesome photo essay! I love how we get it done in New York City. The piano movers for PianoPiano fit the U1 into my elevator before I had time to get downstairs to see them roll it in. They were good, and fast.
Great article!! Piano moving is a unique skill. I watched the guys who moved my grand, they were obviously very accustomed to working together, had a system for everything and were very, very good at it. I also watched a guy move my upright by himself, he was very good as well, clearly knew exactly exactly what to do in order to manage the task alone, safely, and without injury to body or instrument.
A few things from the article:
Quote
Tiny elevators can be a professional hazard: “Once, two guys were in the elevator when the cable snapped,” Ripatti said. “The guys were cut out in a few hours, but the piano was stuck for two more days.”
Quote
“The movers are here to protect the piano, not the hallway.”
I like their priorities!
Started piano June 1999. Proud owner of a Yamaha C2
Great article!! Piano moving is a unique skill. I watched the guys who moved my grand, they were obviously very accustomed to working together, had a system for everything and were very, very good at it. I also watched a guy move my upright by himself, he was very good as well, clearly knew exactly exactly what to do in order to manage the task alone, safely, and without injury to body or instrument.
A few things from the article:
Quote
Tiny elevators can be a professional hazard: “Once, two guys were in the elevator when the cable snapped,” Ripatti said. “The guys were cut out in a few hours, but the piano was stuck for two more days.”
Quote
“The movers are here to protect the piano, not the hallway.”
I like their priorities!
Elisha Otis invented the safety brake for elevators and demonstrated it at the 1853 New York World's Fair. Before that, people were terrified to ride on elevators for fear the cable would break.
"At the age of 40, while he was cleaning up the factory, he wondered how he could get all the old debris up to the upper levels of the factory. He had heard of hoisting platforms, but these often broke, and he was unwilling to take the risks. He and his sons, who were also tinkerers, designed their own "safety elevator" and tested it successfully. He initially thought so little of it he neither patented it nor requested a bonus from his superiors for it, nor did he try to sell it. After having made several sales, and after the bedstead factory declined, Otis took the opportunity to make an elevator company out of it, initially called Union Elevator Works and later Otis Brothers & Co.
No orders came to him over the next several months, but soon after, the 1853 New York World's Fair offered a great chance at publicity.[4] At the New York Crystal Palace, Otis amazed a crowd when he ordered the only rope holding the platform on which he was standing cut.[2] The rope was severed by an axeman, and the platform fell only a few inches before coming to a halt.[5] The safety locking mechanism had worked, and people gained greater willingness to ride in traction elevators; these elevators quickly became the type in most common usage and helped make present-day skyscrapers possible."
It reminds me when I got my piano. For the delivery in my basement, my stair goes like this, turn left, turn left again go down and turn right. It was tight but I measured everything. I knew the maximum height and depth of the upright piano and I could buy. But I made one big mistake, piano came with blanket and strap around it. They couldn't get the piano down, they had to remove the strap and blankets. They were able to do it very slowly and there was no scratch on the piano or the wall, I gave them extra money.
Last edited by Serge88; 03/07/2002:18 PM.
“To send light into the darkness of men’s hearts - such is the duty of the artist.” - Robert Schumann
Cool little documentary. It makes me want to document more of our deliveries and pick ups. Some may have seen us craning a Steinway D into a loft already, but if you did not,click here for a short video: .
Cool little documentary. It makes me want to document more of our deliveries and pick ups. Some may have seen us craning a Steinway D into a loft already, but if you did not,click here for a short video: .
Cool little documentary. It makes me want to document more of our deliveries and pick ups. Some may have seen us craning a Steinway D into a loft already, but if you did not,click here for a short video: .
Rich, I've seen that video before, but now that I have a grand of my own, I appreciate it more!!
The shot where one of the guys is standing on the window sill, and another guy is holding on to the first guy's belt buckle!!
That freaks me out! On a high floor in a building I worked at in downtown NYC, the window washers used to stand on the window sill and hold themselves there with one hand on the inside of the wall! I had to leave the room, I couldn't watch.
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